JANET COLLITON

It seems sometimes that everywhere you go and in every news media you consult, a major subject of interest is Artificial Intelligence ÔÇö otherwise known as AI. What AI is and what it means for the future has been the subject of television interviews such as the one appearing on the popular television program ÔÇ£Sixty MinutesÔÇØ between interviewer Scott Pelley and Google CEO Sundar Pi (July 9, 2023).

AI has also inspired legal writings such as the articles appearing in the July/August, 2023 edition of ÔÇ£The Pennsylvania lawyer,ÔÇØ a publication of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. For better or for worse AI has been described as impacting everything from the way we work to the way we write, think, and organize data.

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence has been described as ÔÇ£the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition, and machine vision.ÔÇØ

Another simple description is ÔÇ£the science of making machines that can think like humans. It can do things that are considered ÔÇÿsmart.ÔÇÖ AI technology can process large amounts of data in ways unlike humans. The goal for AI is to be able to do things such as recognize patterns, make decisions, and judge like humansÔǪÔÇØ As early as 2005 and 2006 chess programs based in AI were able to win decisive victories against human international chess champions. In 2023, ÔÇ£Code X ÔÇô The Stanford Center for legal Informatics and the legal technology company CasetextÔǪannounced what they called ÔÇ£a watershed moment.ÔÇØ Research collaborators had deployed GPT-4, the latest generation Large Language Model to take ÔÇö and pass ÔÇö the Uniform Bar Exam. GPT-4 didnÔÇÖt just squeak by. It passed the multiple-choice portion of the exam and both components of the written portion, exceeding not only all prior Large Language ModelÔÇÖs scores, but also the average score of real-life bar exam takers, scoring in the 90th percentileÔǪÔÇØ

AI and the Law

legal use of Artificial Intelligence obviously goes well beyond competition between machines and students in passing the bar exam. How it can be used is a subject of ongoing debate. It is pointed out that AI itself does not think in the way we do or feel. It takes massive amounts of data, organizes it, and arrives at conclusions. It can even make up answers and deceive, which is a subject of great concern.

In the previously cited Pennsylvania Bar Association magazine, ÔÇ£The Pennsylvania lawyer,ÔÇØ two articles, including the cover article ÔÇ£A Cautionary Tale of AI as a Research Tool,ÔÇØ and another ÔÇ£The Not-So-Quiet Revolution: AI and the Practice of Law,ÔÇØ explore AI, GPT, and the actual and potential effects of this revolution.

In ÔÇ£In re Estate of Bupp: A Cautionary Tale,ÔÇØ the author describes his adventures as an associate attorney who was tasked by a partner to research a statute of limitations issue regarding an accounting. The associate decided to use GPT (an AI system) to find the answer and shortly came across the case of Elwood P. Bupp who had filed a petition to be appointed guardian for Florence P. Zook, an elderly woman. The case described a hearing where Bupp was removed as guardian and cited later appellate decisions. The only problem was that Bupp never existed. Neither did Zook or the hearing dates or the decisions described. The story was completely made up by AI. This was the ÔÇ£cautionary tale.ÔÇØ

The second article, ÔÇ£The Not-So-Quiet Revolution: AI and the Practice of Law,ÔÇØ gave a more nuanced view of AI and its possible practical uses. The technology could sort massive amounts of data (the kind frequently produced in discovery) and locate and organize information at a rate of speed unknown to humans. The author also suggested it might help some individuals without legal access to be able to handle some matters on their own. Always, I would note, however, there would be the ÔÇ£BuppÔÇØ concern in mind regarding accuracy.

This was not the end of my learning about AI and the law. Last week I attended the National Elder Law Forum in Chicago where the lead speaker took us through some further positives and negatives. There is still much to be learned.

Janet Colliton Esq. is a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) by the National Elder Law Foundation and limits her practice to elder law, retirement, life care, special needs, and estate planning and administration with offices at 790 East Market St., Ste. 250, West Chester, 610-436-6674, [email protected]. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attorneys and, with Jeffrey Jones, CSA, co-founder of Life Transition Services LLC, a service for families with long term care needs.